Neotype melanocephalus
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Neotype melanocephalus |
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| ( Gmelin , 1790) |
Neotype melanocephalus is a hymenoptera from the parasitic wasp family that parasitizes on bluebirds .
description
The species reaches a body length of 8 to 11 millimeters. The species is strikingly colored and thus distinguishable from most other parasitic wasp species. The trunk section is red in the female, including the propodeum , and black in the male. The head and the free abdomen are predominantly colored black with white drawing elements. The legs are drawn to varying degrees in red and black. The hips of the males are always black. The thighs of the hind legs are patterned red or red and black, in the males partly black. The segments of the free abdomen are black with a narrow white rear edge of the tergite .
Like the related species and genera, Neotype melanocephalus has a characteristic head shape. The front forms a uniformly curved surface without seams, elevations or impressions. The mandibles are short and wide, they are two-pointed with teeth of almost the same length. In the rest position, they do not close together, but leave a wide gap between them. The antenna flagellum is relatively short for an ichneumon wasp (but a little longer than in the related species) and not extended. The temples are narrowed in the species directly from the rear edge of the eyes. The propodeum is very short on the trunk section, the scutellum is elevated compared to the postcutellum. As in many parasitic wasps, a small central cell (areola), which is pentagonal in the genus, is noticeable in the wing veins. The free abdomen is long and narrow, with a long petiolus stalked. The subgenital (the hypopygium ) of the female is extended and narrow, also the sheath of the ovipositor is long and narrow.
distribution
Like its hosts , the parasitic wasp is very rare in Central Europe . On the Lower Rhine ( North Rhine-Westphalia ), where the species was collected a lot by the entomologists Arnold Foerster and Albert Ulbricht at the end of the 19th century, it has lost most of the former sites and is now threatened with extinction. Only a few finds are known from Poland , all in the south of the country, with the main area of distribution in Lower Silesia .
The distribution area of the species includes Western Europe ( Spain , France ), Central Europe ( Germany , Austria , Hungary , Romania , Poland), north to Sweden .
Way of life
It only parasitizes the two butterfly species, Phengaris nausithous and Phengaris teleius, which belong to the blue family . The caterpillars of these bluebellings live between the beginning of July and mid-September, in Central Europe mainly in August, in the flower heads of the Great Meadow Button ( Sanguisorba officinalis ). The parasitic wasp Neotype melanocephalus tries to lay its eggs in the host caterpillars during this time. She specifically patrols around the flower heads in order to locate host animals. The parasitized caterpillars develop completely normally and leave the flower heads of the Great Meadow Button in late summer to hibernate in the nests of ants and continue to develop. The parasitic wasp larva only kills its host at the pupal stage and then hatches from the butterfly pupa itself.
Systematics
The species was by Johann Friedrich Gmelin , as ichneumon melanocephalus , in 1790 described . The synonym Neotype pusillus Gregor was used a lot at times due to an error in the species catalog of the Ichneumonidae of the world. The genus Neotype comprises four species in Europe. It belongs to the tribe Listodromini Foerster, whose rather small species without exception Bläulingen parasitize.
literature
- Manfred Alban Pfeifer: Phaenology of Neotypus melanocephalus (Gmelin, 1790) (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), a parasitoid of the Wiesenknopf ant-blue flukes Phengaris nausithous (Bergstraesser, 1779) et Phengaris teleius (Bergstraesser, 1779) (Lycaidopterae:) . In: Entomological Journal . tape 126 , no. 2 , 2016, ISSN 0013-8843 , p. 81-85 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Klaus Horstmann (2007): Revisions of ichneumon wasp species XI. (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae). Announcements of the Munich Entomological Society 97 73-80.
- ↑ a b Jesus Selfa, Klaus Schönitzer: Taxonomy of the European Species of Neotypus Förster, 1869, with a Key for their Identification (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae, Ichneumoninae, Listrodomini). In: Entomofauna. 15 (41), 1994, pp. 469-480 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
- ↑ a b Alexandr M. Tereshkin: Illustrated key to the tribes of Subfamily Ichneumoninae and genera of the tribe Platylabini of world fauna (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae). In: Linz biological contributions. 41st year, issue 2, Linz 2009, pp. 1317-1608 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
- ↑ M.Sorg, H.Schwan, W.Stenmans (2008): The ichneumon wasp Neotype melanocephalus (Gmelin, 1790) in North Rhine-Westphalia and the monitoring of the blue ant (Phengaris spp.). Messages from the Entomological Association Krefeld 1 (2008): 1–5.
- ↑ Anna M. Stankiewicz, Martin Sielezniew, Januz Sawoniewicz (2004): Neotypus pusillus Gregor 1940 (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae), Endoparasite of Maculinea nausithous (Bergsträsser, 1779) (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae): new data on distribution in Poland with remarks biology. Fragmenta Faunistica 47 (2): 115-120.